If I Ain't Got You
by Dymond
Summary: They all wanted something more, but the people who loved them, only wanted them. A series of one shots. JouxAnzu RyouxMai
1. Some People Live For The Fortune

**If I Ain't Got You**

Some People Live For The Fortune

_Some people think that the physical things_

_Define what's within_

_And I've been there before_

****

Anzu Mazaki finished her performance with an extravagant twirl and the splits. She bowed her head and the lights went low on the stage. Quietly, she slipped off stage and waited for a few seconds, to head back on stage to take a bow with the other dancers in the play.

Anzu was the last person to walk across the stage with her male counterpart and they received the most applause. She had a broad smile on her face and caught the flowers that were tossed to her.

Six months after Battle City Yami and Yuugi had officially announced they were a couple, and her dreams of true love had gone down the drain. After eating tons of chocolate and watching clichéd soap operas for about a week, a letter had come in the mail telling her that she had been accepted into the New York School of Dance.

So Anzu had packed her bags and left for the U.S. without so much as a word to her friends.

She worked hard, and didn't let any man distract her, so she was at the top of the class in no time. She graduated four years later as valedictorian.

It had been three years since then and there had been no letters, no phone calls, or no visits from her friends. Anzu realized that she left without telling them and never wrote, called, or visited herself, but it still would have been nice to know that her friends remembered her.

Recently, she had landed the part of Grizabella in Broadway's production of _Cats_. It was their opening night, so the seats were completely sold out and they would be for the next week or so.

Anzu hadn't had much to live for after she had left Domino City. She suffered from a broken heart. First she stayed in New York because of her love for dance. But the stress of heartache topped with long training hours and homework got to her and it almost got to the point where she couldn't take it any more. However, she refused to quit and continued on during the long training hours.

After her first major performance, Anzu found a good reason to stay alive and in New York. Anzu never realized how well Broadway performers were paid. So she remained for the money.

She had never had a lot of money in Japan. Her parents didn't have high-paying jobs and their divorce didn't help. They could barely pay for her to go to the dance school even with the scholarship. The money she earned dancing was a blessing. She sent money home to her parents and had more than enough money for herself.

Slowly, the applause broke up and the people began to leave. The performers exited the stage and headed to their dressing rooms to head for home. Anzu stopped in front of her door and looked at the nameplate for a second. It read: 'Tea Gardener GRIZABELLA'.

It was the stage name Anzu had picked for herself five years ago. It sounded more 'American' and it would be easier to remember. But it wasn't her name and that depressed her. Maybe it was why her friends hadn't been able to find her all these years. She had been going by Tea for sometime.

She entered to see a typical dressing room. A counter with make-up and an illuminated mirror was off to one side while a rack of costumes was across the room from it. Anzu headed towards her counter and picked up the various flowers that were strewn across it. Each had a note attached to it, one from Timothy Smith, the man who played Old Deuteronomy, one from Jonathan Vogel, the director and a few others from different people.

Anzu had just set the greenery down when a knock came from the door.

"Come in," she yelled nonchalantly.

"You were beautiful out there tonight," a familiar masculine voice said as the door swung open.

Anzu's eyes widened at the sound. "Jou!" she nearly shrieked as she spun around to face the blonde.

He had gotten slightly taller now bordering 6 feet. He still had the lanky, thin look going on but he wasn't wearing his laid back style of clothing. He had dressed up in a suit for Anzu's performance tonight. His hair still fell in front of his brown eyes. He wasn't grinning at the moment and his eyes had a sad look to them.

"Oh my gosh, it's been so long. How have you been? How's the gang?" Anzu paused for a second to clear her mind and said, "Why are you here?"

Jounouchi looked at the ceiling and started to answer. "The gang's been doing fine since you left. We all took it really hard for the first year or so, but when we didn't get any letters or calls or nothin' most of us got over it. Since then a lot has happened. Shizuka owns a big time company now, Ryou and Bakura got together a couple years back and they're doing well, I think Bakura said something about proposing. Marik is back after Malik begged Bakura to bring him back. Yuugi and Yami are married and they've adopted a little girl name McKenzie."

The blonde paused for a second. "Yuug' was really depressed after you left. He thought he'd driven you away because he knew you were in love with Yami. It took forever to get him to be partially happy. He hated himself because he thought he isolated a friend." Jou shot the performer a look. "You shouldn't have left," he said.

Anzu looked back guiltily. "I know. But I couldn't have _stayed. _It was too much for me to take. I couldn't sit in the room and watched Yugi and Yami be all cutesy together. Have you ever had to feel the pain of knowing that the person you love doesn't love you?"

Jou's eyes looked straight into hers. "Yes actually I have." He paused. "Before you left, I was in love with a girl who had brown hair, blue eyes, and loved to dance. And every day I'd see her and pretend that my world didn't revolve around her. And everyday I had to live with the fact that she was in love with a spirit and pretend that it didn't bother me."

Tears were running down Anzu's face in a steady flow smearing the stage make-up that she hadn't had time to remove. "Jou, I—"

"Let me finish," he said in a gentle voice. "When you left my heart was shattered and there was no one to pick up the pieces. And no one could know about my pain. I had to be strong for everyone else. It finally took me three years to finally try and find you, but by then no one outside of Domino knew whom you were, everyone referred to you as Tea Gardener. It took me so long to find you again. And now I have."

Anzu had sunk to her knees and was crying hard. Joey got down on her knees in front of her and raised her head. She noticed that tears were running down his face as well. " And you're a beautiful woman. You have an amazing singing voice and you are an amazing dancer. I'm still in love with Anzu Mazaki. I'll always be in love with the Anzu. But you're not her. You are Tea Gardener, performer extraordinaire."

Slowly, Jou brought his lips down to cover Anzu's. It was a soft and short kiss, but filled with love.

"I'll always wait for Anzu Mazaki," he whispered. Then he got up and left the room, not caring that his face was tearstained and his clothes were a bit rumpled.

Anzu watched him leave and knew that if she ever wanted to see him again, she would have to leave and find him. But the money was here, and she wasn't sure if she could leave the money.

Well, there it is. My first attempt at YGO fanfiction. I hope I didn't screw it up too bad. Constructive criticism is always welcome, just don't flame! There will be three more parts to this story (and if you've ever heard the song, I bet you can guess what their titles will be.)

Thanks Dymond

Disclaimer: I do not own any Yu-gi-oh characters, the musical Cats, or Alicia Keys song 'If I Ain't Got You'.****


	2. Some People Live Just For The Fame

**If I Ain't Got You**

Some People Live Just For The Fame

_Some people want it all _

__

_But I don't want nothing at all_

_If it ain't you baby _

_If I ain't got you baby_

"Harpy Lady, ATTACK!" The command was yelled and a hologram of a half-woman, half-bird, equipped with a rose whip, launched itself at a boy's hologram of a baby dragon. The lizard shattered and the boy's life points dropped to zero.

Mai Kujaki grinned her fallen opponent as the crowd that had gathered cheered wildly. Next to Yuugi Motou and Seto Kaiba, she was the most famous duelist in the world.

And she loved it.

She loved the way ignorant wanna-be's challenged her and then lost.

She loved the look on their faces, because they really thought they had what it takes to beat her.

But most of all, Mai Kujaki loved how everyone knew her name.

When Mai was very young, her father was loaded (and he still was). He always bought her whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. It was nice, but he was never around. Her mother had died giving birth to her and her father ran a large company. The maids were scared of her. She was never noticed by anyone.

Then her father had bought her a Duel Monsters booster deck. She had fallen in love with the game, and became obsessed to be the best. She dueled everyone she knew that had a deck. She spent hours perfecting her deck and learning new strategies. She tried to know everything there was to know about Duel Monsters just to become the best.

And she almost was. Only six people had ever beaten her in a duel. Yuugi Motou and Seto Kaiba were the obvious ones. They could beat anybody, except each other, without breaking a sweat. Jounouchi Katsuya had beaten her many, many years ago in Duelist Kingdom. Jou would be the number three duelist, but after Anzu had left, he had given up on Duel Monsters.

Mai still bristled at the name. After Anzu left everyone was crushed, especially Yuugi. And, even though he didn't admit it, Jou was heartbroken. Mai had noticed that he looked at Anzu in that special way, even though the brown haired girl was too blind to see it.

Anzu had beaten Mai once in Duelist Kingdom, but only on a fluke. Mai didn't really try too hard because Anzu was dueling so that Yuugi would accept the star chips.

Marik had defeated Mai once as well. He had locked her mind in the shadow realm and watched as everyone had fun without her. They didn't seem to care that she wasn't present. It had terrified her.

As the crowd began to disperse and go their separate ways, Mai collected her duel disk and turned to leave. She glanced at her watch and saw that it was about 1:00 pm. _The wedding should start in about five minutes._

Mai didn't know if she would attend or not. How many people want to see the only man they ever loved get married to another man?

It was Ryou's wedding today. The only other person who had ever beaten her was getting married to the other half of his soul. Kind of ironic if you think about it.

She remembered their duel well. It was about a month after Anzu left and she was feeling down.

A knock came from the door of her luxurious home. Mai answered the door to reveal a cheery looking Ryou Bakura.

_"Hello, Mai!" He greeted. "I stopped by to see how you were doing. Are you feeling well?"_

_She stepped aside to let the boy in. "Hi Ryou. I guess I'm feeling ok. Still kinda depressed about Anzu leaving." The blonde sighed._

_"I know how you're feeling. We all miss her." Ryou patted her arm in a friendly gesture. "I stopped by Yuugi's this morning and Yami told me he wasn't doing good."_

_"I guess I thought she was my friend and that she would have told me about something like this." Mai ran her hands through her hair._

_"We all did," Ryou said quietly. They sat in silence for a second before Ryou spoke again. "That's enough dwelling on the sad things. I know exactly what will cheer you up!"_

_Mai raised an eyebrow. This boy was weird. "And what might that be?"_

_"A duel!" Ryou grinned and held up his deck. "I know you're pretty good and you enjoy this game so I thought we could duel. No Shadow Powers, I promise."_

_Mai smiled at the suggestion. "No help from that crazy spirit of yours either."_

_Ryou got a mock serious expression on his face. "Bakura will not interfere with this match, I will not use Shadow Powers, but I will defeat you!" They both giggled._

He did actually end up beating her. It was a very interesting victory. The memory still made Mai smile.

_"I play the Change of Heart card! It possesses your Harpy Lady and with no other monsters to defend you it attacks your life points directly." Ryou set the card down on the designated space and smirked. "Which brings you down to zero! Ha! I win!"_

_Mai looked unbelievingly at the cards. "Wow. You actually beat me." She looked up to see Ryou doing a cheesy little victory dance. "What _are _you doing?"_

_"Celebrating, if you really must know. I beat one of the world's top duelists." He stuck his tongue out at her._

_"Only because I let you win," Mai said matter-of-factly._

_"You're bluffing! You don't want to admit defeat at the hands of the Great Ryou!" He stopped in his dance to point a finger at Mai._

_Mai burst out laughing. Once she calmed down she said, "This has been _the _weirdest day."_

_"But I cheered you up, right?" Ryou asked._

_"Yes, yes you did. Thanks, I really needed some company." Mai smiled and they both sat down on the couch._

_"I'm glad you enjoyed my company." Ryou draped an arm over the back of the couch. "Actually, I had one more thing I wanted to give you."_

_"No, Ryou you've already done—" Mai's protests were cut off as he gently covered her lips with his own._

Their relationship had lasted nearly a year and a half, which was pretty impressive considering the age difference.

But eventually, they broke it off after a rather large fight. Mai wanted to be famous and Ryou couldn't live that type of life.

Mai would do anything to be famous, even strip if she could do nothing else. Thankfully, she was very good at Duel Monsters. It probably had something to do with being practically ignored as a child with no friends. But Ryou wasn't that type of person. He wanted a quiet life and she couldn't give him that.

After much internal debating, Mai decided to go to the wedding. Looking at her watch she realized that she would have missed most of it, but she could still see the last part and go to the reception if they let her.

She quickly changed into a spaghetti strap purple dress at her house. She hurried to the church and then slipped quietly in the back unnoticed by the rest of the people gathered here.

They were already to the vows. Bakura had just finished and now it was Ryou's turn. Ryou's turn to tell Bakura that her he loved him more than anyone else in the world.

"We've been through many things together," His clear voice rang out. "Happy, sad, crazy, and just plain weird times. I remember the first time I met you. I was eight and I put the Ring on and you popped out. I was terrified. But you didn't hurt me just disappeared again. And you always were kinda quiet, but protected me throughout my life. And I love you for it. You're my yami, the other half of my soul. And I love you with all of my half."

Tears were dripping down Mai's face. But unlike many of the other women's tears, she wasn't crying because she was happy, her walls had finally broken down and she was sad that she and Ryou had never worked. All Ryou had wanted was her, but she couldn't live with just him.

She watched them say, "I do" and then turned to leave with everyone else. But before she could get to the door a little girl stopped her.

"Aunt Mai! You're here!" her young voice called out as she grabbed the older woman's leg.

Mai smiled and swung the girl up into her arms. "Oh, McKenzie you're getting so big! And so pretty!" She ruffled McKenzie's black hair ignoring the girl's protests. "Say, do you know where your daddies are?"

McKenzie nodded. "Daddy Yami isn't here, but Daddy Yuugi is over there" She pointed a chubby little finger in the direction of Yuugi.

"Let's go get your daddy, OK?" Mai said to the child. She walked over to Yuugi and put McKenzie on his shoulders.

"Hey, Kenzie," the man said looking upwards to his adopted daughter as she played with his hair. "Who did you find?"

"Auntie Mai," McKenzie said happily.

Yuugi spun around, eyes wide in shock. "Wow, Mai. Err, nice to see you. I didn't think you'd be coming."

Mai smiled a little half-smile. "Well, I like to surprise people. Besides Ryou wanted me to come."

Yuugi gently lifted McKenzie off his shoulders. "Honey, why don't you go play with Uncle Seto, alright? Aunt Mai and I have some grown-up stuff to discuss." The girl nodded happily and ran off in search of the CEO. "So, what are you doing here?" Yuugi asked tentatively.

Mai shrugged. "I don't know. I got an invitation, although I don't, for the life of me, know why. So I decided to show up."

Yuugi snorted. "Yea, and I married Kaiba. Why are you _really_ here?"

"I guess…I just had to see him one more time." Mai looked away ashamedly. "I know he's getting married and all, but I still love him. I just happen to love being famous as well."

Yuugi thought for a moment. "You know, he still loves you too," he spoke softly. "I know it, Yami knows it, Bakura knows it, and you know it." Mai nodded and Yuugi continued speaking. "I'm not blaming you, but all Ryou wanted was you. And you couldn't want only him. And that was the problem. I know what it's like to be famous, nearly everyone knows my name, and I know how addicting it could be to someone like to you. And I feel sorry for you and for Ryou."

Mai knew this was all true. "He moved on. I haven't, but I hope eventually I will."

Yuugi smiled one of his giant loving smiles at her. "That's good. So, I hope you'll come to the reception. I bet Ryou will save a dance for you." And with that Yuugi took off to find his daughter, leaving Mai there alone to think.

_Is the fame worth it? _Thought Mai. _I don't know, but I do know that I can't help but love it._

All Ryou had wanted was Mai. But Mai wanted the fame.

Well, there's chapter two! It's dedicated to my one reviewer, **WolfBane2**. Was that good enough? I put lotsa Ryou in it.

Hopefully I can get more reviews on this chapter. Chapter three will be Seto/Shizuka. That will be fun to write.

Dymond


End file.
